White Brits now make up less than half of Croydon's population, new figures show.

Data from the 2011 Census shows 47.3 per cent - 171,878 of the borough's 363,378 population - described themselves as being "White British". In 2001, the figure stood at 63.7 per cent.

The second-largest ethnic group in Croydon was Black Caribbeans who make up 8.6 per cent - 31,251 people. Indians were the third largest group at 6.8 per cent - 24,710.

A total of 18 ethnic categories make up Croydon's population.

Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell said he was "privileged" to represent a borough so culturally diverse, but called for a "two-way street" between cultures to ensure further integration remains successful.

He said: "People from different backgrounds make a huge contribution economically, setting up businesses and working in our public services, and culturally, to our cultural life. I'm privileged as MP to say that.

"I think it is about people living here being welcomed to communities and people that come here making an effort to learn the language among other things. It is a two-way street.

"There is an issue about the pace of change. I would argue that during the previous Government the scale of change was too high.

"What we need to do is to make sure that people integrate properly into our society and I think Croydon is much better at doing that than most parts of the country."